Same values - entirely different customer service

Two big box stores right next door to one another – a shared parking lot and that is where the similarity ends. First I went to Big Box number one – a home and hardware store.

In BB1 a sales person was hard to fine. Only one of the three individuals I spoke to was able to direct me (with a wave) in the general direction I needed to head. As I was paying for my purchases the young man behind me was rather abruptly told he had to go to another teller because this one was closing. When he, quite rightly, objected that there was no closed sign – he was ignored.

After I had paid for my purchases I tried to head for the parking lot. But I was stuck – there did not seem to be any way for me to take my shopping cart down to the underground parking. I appealed to a member of staff for help: “each cart is worth $250,” he told me, “you can’t take it to the parking lot, it’s too expensive if we lose it.”

Yeah right – let’s see what good a whole lot of expensive carts do you without any customers.

Big Box number two was an electronics store. I was on a hunt for a vacuum cleaner. The young man I asked help from, politely took me over and gave me a thorough explanation of the product I was interested in. I asked if I could have a cart and right away he trotted off to find me one. As I was waiting for him two other sales people asked if they could help me.

Once I had paid for my purchase I went to the elevator. I pushed the button and waited - but nothing happened. I turned to one of the nearby greeters to ask if there was a problem with the elevators and she waved to me and called out that she had already called someone to see about the elevator. Boy what a difference. But wait it gets better. A young man arrived. He spent about five minutes trying to get the elevator to work – to no avail. He then happily picked up my purchase and cheerfully escorted me and it to my car.

Yes, yes, yes I am going back.

Now I happen to know that both of these organizations have similar values – I went to their respective web sites and checked. But in the one organization the values are simply words on paper, in the other they are real things that people do every day to make the customer experience worthwhile.

Getting those values off the shelf and into the hands of your employees is pretty key. What are you doing to make your values real for employees? I’d like to know because if you’re doing it right – I want to do business with you.